Myanmar population control bill signed into law despite concerns it could be used to persecute minorities
Updated
Myanmar's president has signed off on a controversial law that could see mothers forced to have children at least three years apart, despite objections that it could be used to repress ethnic minorities including Rohingya Muslims.
President Thein Sein signed the Population Control Health Care Bill into law on Saturday, just hours after a visiting US diplomat left the country, the Associated Press reported.
The bill was passed by Myanmar's parliamentarians last month.
US deputy secretary of state Anthony Blinken said he warned Myanmar's leaders about the dangers of the bill during face to face talks on Friday, the report said.
"The legislation contains provisions that can be enforced in a manner that would undermine reproductive rights, women's rights and religious freedom," Mr Blinken told reporters on Friday.
"We shared the concerns that these bills can exacerbate ethic and religious divisions and undermine the country's efforts to promote tolerance and diversity."
Under the legislation, local authorities can survey their regions to determine if "resources are unbalanced because of a high number of migrants in the area, a high population growth rate and a high birth rate", the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported.
They can then ask the central government to impose laws making it compulsory for women to wait "at least 36 months" after giving birth before having another child.
The consequences for breaking the birth-spacing rules are unclear.
Concerns minority groups could be targeted by laws
Myanmar has seen surging Buddhist nationalism in recent years and spates of violence targeting Muslim minorities have raised doubts over its much vaunted reforms after decades of harsh military rule.
The population control bill was among a number of laws under consideration that have been seen by activists as particularly discriminatory against women and minorities — with the already marginalised Rohingya likely to be affected.
"This will seriously worsen ethnic and religious tensions. We fully expect that the Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine state will be target number one of this legislation," said Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson.
On Sunday a politician from opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party told AFP that "no NLD MP voted in favour of this law" earlier in May.
"This law shouldn't have been enacted ... We women are the ones who will suffer," May Win Myint said.
A NLD spokesman said he could not confirm how the party voted.
Many of the migrants arriving on the shores of South-East Asian nations recently in crowded boats have been Rohingyas from Myanmar.
The widespread persecution of the impoverished Muslim community in Myanmar's western Rakhine state is one of the primary causes for the current crisis, alongside growing numbers trying to escape poverty in neighbouring Bangladesh.
Myanmar's government however has reiterated its refusal to recognise the stateless Rohingya as an ethnic group, preferring to call them "Bengalis" — shorthand for illegal migrants.
Buddhist hardliners have warned that Muslims, which represent only 10 per cent of Myanmar's population, could take over, due to their high birthrates.
ABC/AFP
World news in your inbox
Subscribe to get ABC News delivered to your email, including top world headlines, news and analysis from home and alerts on major breaking stories.
Topics: population-and-demographics, laws, law-crime-and-justice, discrimination, multiculturalism, world-politics, government-and-politics, foreign-affairs, burma
First posted
